AI-Discovered Traditional Chinese Medicine-Derived Small Molecules Show Promise for Alzheimer's Disease Treatment

Source: Haiwai Network

Macao, April 26th, by Haiwai Network(Reporter Zimei Fu) The reporter learned from the University of Macau that the research team led by Deputy Dean of the Institute of Chinese Medical Sciences at the University of Macau, Jiahong Lu, in collaboration with MindRank Ltd. and Imperial College London, has successfully established an AI-based platform for the discovery of active ingredients in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and natural products. This platform integrates millions of compound information entries and multiple predictive modules. Using this platform for virtual screening, combined with cross-species experimental validation, the team identified small-molecule compounds from TCM with potential for treating Alzheimer's disease. The relevant research findings have been published in *Nature Biomedical Engineering*.

It is reported that the platform deeply integrates the team's prior research foundation with cutting-edge artificial intelligence technology. By leveraging advanced algorithms and computational models, it can efficiently identify active components of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) that possess neuroprotective effects, autophagy-regulating activity, and excellent potential to cross the blood-brain barrier. After two key iterations, the scale of the platform’s natural product and TCM compound library has expanded to the million level, with significant improvements in screening speed and accuracy. Currently, multiple candidate compounds have demonstrated outstanding effects in animal disease models and are in the further development stage. This AI platform has been officially released (https://deepdrugdiscovery.mindrank.ai/).

The number of Alzheimer's patients worldwide exceeds 50 million, but there has been no breakthrough in treatment for a long time. The candidate traditional Chinese medicine small molecules discovered in this study precisely modulate the mTOR-independent autophagy pathway to promote the clearance of toxic proteins, thereby slowing disease progression. This demonstrates the clinical significance of targeting autophagy as a therapeutic strategy for Alzheimer's disease.

This study was supported by the "Sailing Dreams, Creating a Future" funding program of the University of Macau–Dr. Stanley Ho Medical Development Foundation, the General Program of the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the Science and Technology Development Fund of the Macao Special Administrative Region, and the University of Macau Development Foundation.